What is Morbid Obesity?

This question is on many people’s minds, and the answer to it can be surprising. As opposed to popular belief, morbid obesity or ICD 9 code for morbid obesity can be a pathological trait.

The definition of morbid obesity refers to people who are at risk of losing their lives due to the unburnt body fats. Morbid obesity ICD 9 is the code used in the medical field for people who suffer from this condition.

BMI morbid obesity refers to the fact that an individual has a higher than normal body mass index. This is a problem for super morbidly obese people and not people who just suffer from overweight.

Morbid obesity BMI is the way of determining if a person suffers from this condition. ICD 9 morbid obesity in the United States alone is an illness that affects 31.8% of the population.

Simply put, there are many factors that lead to morbidly obese BMI. The disease implies that people cannot burn the fat stored leading it to grow in mass quantities. The factors that include the rise in obesity are many. They include:

• Stress
• Anxiety
• Bad eating habits
• Lack of sport activities
• Lack of sleep
• Renouncing cigarettes
• Antidepressants
• Birth control pills
• Genes

As a result, people who obtain more calories than what the body needs, often result in having to gain weight. The standard body mass index (BMI) should be under the value of 30. The body mass index is calculated from the height and weight that a person has. It is important to understand that the body mass index and weight gain are two different things. Obesity can also lead to some serious illnesses, such as:

• Heart diseases
• Diabetes
• Strokes
• Osteoarthritis
• Sleep apnea

 

Nevertheless, there are also various ways to treat obesity. The matter lies in being consistent when choosing a suitable treatment.

Proper Workout Sessions

To prevent weight gain or obesity, it is ideal to engage into workouts of at least 150 minutes per week. Activities such as fast walking and swimming are ideal to help people who struggle with obesity to lose weight.

A Proper Diet

The problem that many people face lies in diet. What we eat highly influence our lifestyles. As a result, we must tend to avoid saturated fat foods, alcoholic drinks, high calories foods and limit sweet foods. The idea is to get the same nutritional value required by the body from foods such as whole grains, vegetables, and fruits.

Medical Operations

If having a proper diet and working out do not seem to have an effect, many people rely on surgeries. Laparoscopic gastric bypass and gastric bypass surgery are the medical procedures doctors recommend to patients. Laparoscopic gastric bypass is the procedure in which the surgeon places a band surrounding the upper stomach. This way, people will feel they have a full stomach after eating even a small amount of food. Gastric bypass surgery changes the way food travels through the stomach and bowels.

So to recap, people should eat more fruits and vegetables rather than saturated, trans fats and sugars. Also, people who suffer from this illness must engage in physical activities such as jogging or swimming. Of course, a gym subscription is not a bad idea either.

Unfortunately, many people choose the easy way out and find help in weight loss drugs. The major problem with them and the main reason we do not recommend these drugs are that once the user stops taking them, weight is gained back fast.

USA: Morbid Obesity Statistics

Up until the mid-2000s, no state within the United States of America had an obesity rate higher than 25%. Beginning with 2007. However, things started to change. Mississippi was the only state with an obesity rate higher than 30%. By 2013, no American state reported obesity rates lower than 20%.

The following year gave birth to even more concerning situations when 41 states reported obesity rates of at least 25%. Some studies have shown that obesity rates are closely related to the financial income of people. For example, 25,4% of individuals who earn at least $50,000 or more per year are obese.

On the other hand, more than 31% of people who make less than $ 25,000 annually are suffering from the disease.

Fighting Morbid Obesity

There is a strong connection between how much a person makes and how healthy that person’s diet is. The truth of the matter is that it is becoming more and more expensive in the modern world to have a healthy diet. This can be seen by the need to produce more food as the world’s population increases. The food industry is resorting to a vast array of chemicals that are being used in the food process making, to keep them in warranty for a longer time.

Furthermore, a person who is financially stable eats less at fast food dinners than a person who cannot afford to eat healthy and balanced. In other words, it is cheaper to buy a burger than to purchase a pound of apples.

Nevertheless, the fact that obesity is affecting many children, not only adults, is a sign that education also plays a significant role in the prevention of this disease. Many parents resort to buying fast food meals than cook homemade meals due to a series of factors. The most obvious ones refer to time and money.

The targeted parents are those whose yearly earnings are less than $25,000 and spend at least ten hours daily performing their jobs. The commute time is included when calculating the time factor and is also a major reason for why many people buy fast food meals. The mere fact that the modern working man has less time to spend cooking homemade meals leads to obesity. We resort buying foods high in calories, trans, and saturated fats. This has been proven time and time again, that it leads to serious illnesses, such as those morbidly obese people suffer from.

The factors that result in morbid obesity are many as we have seen. However, people should understand that there are also solutions and treatments. The problem lies in one’s ability to see them through. Similarly to any other engagement, these procedures must be treated seriously, for morbid obesity has been seen to threaten human lives.

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